DAVE HARROW has the sort of CV to make your jaw drop. Since leaving art school in the early 1980s, he's spent time in Berlin being seduced (not literally) by Einsturzende Neubauten and collaborating with poet Anne Clark, not to mention Alec Empire; he's lived in a Bungalow Park in Holland and joined both Jah Wobble's Invaders of The Heart and spent years in Adrian Sherwood's On-U Sound house band Dub Syndicate, while in recent years he's released a lengthy string of notable dance-related albums for (among others) Andy Weatherall's Sabres label and casually penned Billy Ray Martin's "Your Lovin' Arms" hit, which alone clocked up nearly 4 million sales. He usually records under the name JAMES HARDWAY, because James is his middle name and - as his mates will tell you - does things the hard way. Fascinated yet? You should be as W&H caught up with the great man in London to celebrate the release of his new Hydrogen Dukebox album "Big Casino."
Dave, this is only theoretical on our behalf, but your new album "Big Casino" again melds eletcronica with hybrid jazz and Latin American influences. Is it the third of a trilogy which began with 2000's landmark "Moors And Christians" and continued with 2001's "Straight From The Fridge"?
"Yeah, actually I'd say so," Dave muses. "Because I'd say "Moors & Christians" was kind've where I thought things were gonna change. I learnt a phenomenal amount making "Moors..." from going to Cuba and working with amazing musicians there. They opened my head up to a lot."
"And I think in some ways the new album's the most cohesive of the three in the sense that I've got the sound down now," he continues.
"I mean, the whole Cuban attitude to music's like nothing else. There are 26 different rhythms have originated from that country.."
What??
"Yeah, really, it's amazing. The likes of the cha-cha-cha and so on are only the tip of the iceberg."
Whoa. So are the Latin American rhythms on the new album an extension of the Cuban rhythms again or are they attributable to a different South American country?
"No, it's more of a case of taking Cuban beats and moving them into a new environment, really," he replies.
"I've never been that into Latin melodies so much, though. The attraction for me lies purely in the rhythmic, percussive side of Latin America."
OK. But one of the terms I'm hearing bandied about with the new album is "hybrid jazz". How do you feel about that term and how important is jazz (in whatever form) to James Hardway's music?
"It's been very important to me," he replies. "But more so in the way that drum and bass can be cut up and also dub can be cut up and redefined and those kind of end results sounded like jazz to me. I liked the areas those kinds of music were leading me to...."
Sort of: "Come on Dave, this way!"
"Yeah, right," he laughs.
But you have certainly experimented with numerous musical styles over a period of time. Does it worry you that some critics might be tempted to brand you as a dilettante?
"Well, if a natural progression over seven album's being a dilettante then yeah, I'm guilty," he deadpans sarkily, but not unfairly.
"But y'now, if that's what they think, then fuck 'em. I mean, you might think I jump genres at random if you took track one on one album and then track nine on a totally different album and approach it non-chronologically or something, then you might see a change....actually I'd hope you would, because if you've not broken sweat after seven very different albums then there's something wrong with your instincts. Making music's not meant to be easy, after all."
Fair comment. But let's just examine your past work for a while, Dave. As I was saying, your CV's truly spectacular. Tell me a bit about some of the people you've worked with. Lee 'Scratch' Perry, for instance, the legendary dub/reggae producer. Harrow has said "He has a lightbulb in his head which is continually on" of Perry, but what did he learn from him?
"Er...just to trust your instincts and not to let outside people guide you into areas you don't wanna go," says Dave, considering his answer carefully.
"Plus to have the greatest respect for what you have created if it's worthwhile. That's something we tend not to subscribe to in this country(England)."
I really am amazed by how many people have collaborated with you. For instance ATR'S Alec Empire is down on record as calling you "the Godfather of Techno." How does that sit with you?
"Ha! Well, I think that was just him taking the piss," says Dave, downplaying.
"It's one of those quotes that gets taken out of context and comes into public domain because it's seen as quote-worthy. It's true I've produced a couple of albums for him, though, when they started and Alec's a really interesting person and a really talented guy. His approach may surprise you - he scores all his music out in detail, for instance."
Really? I can't imagine him being so clinical in his approach.
"Oh yeah, but then his whole approach is pretty extreme, which is typical for me. I'm always attracted to extreme people and extreme ways of doing things."
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Yeah, well you've certainly worked with people renowned for being uncompromising. Tell me more about your time with Jah Wobble's Invaders of The Heart...
"Yeah, I think that came together in Holland...about 1986 or so. I'd started working with him because I was touring a lot at the time and he needed a keyboard player," Dave recalls.
"We lived in a Bungalow park for a while there," he continues, laughing at the memory, "because we couldn't find any hotels to take us, and we probably had a bit of a reputation and, well, my time with the Invaders ended up lasting several years, until about the dawn of the 1990s..."
I remember seeing the Invaders at the WOMAD Festival in Morecambe of all places in May 1990. Were you still involved then?
"Mmm, sounds about right," muses Dave. "It was coming to the end then, though. Actually, it's down to Wobble that I met up with Sherwood and the On-U people initially."
How's that?
"He actually drove me round there, saying "You should hang around with these guys for a while!""
Did you know he was dropping you?
"Yeah, I guess, though it was quite a nice way to do it, I suppose," Dave laughs heartily.
Post-Invaders would have been around the time of the whole E/Acid House explosion. Was that one of those Road To Damascus moments for you musically and socially?
"Yeah,very much so," agrees Dave. "I mean, before that time if you went out and you looked a bit different you were taking your life in your hands, but E and acid house changed all that."
"So yeah, it changed me and a lot of people I know into...peace-lovong hippies," he laughs.
" I went to places like Shoom (legendary London club from this period) and all of a sudden people before who'd be looking for a ruck would finish the night all wanting to hug each other. It was prtty radical and an enlightening time for a while at least...until cocaine started seeping in again," he finishes with a sigh.
In more recent times, Dave has been recording regularly as James Hardway (staring with the 1996 album "Deeper, Wider, Smoother Shit" and continuing with 1997's critically-acclaimed "Welcome To The Neon Lounge" and its' equally successful follow-up "A Positive Sweat" before the aformentioned "Moors & Christians") and up until a couple of years ago made annual pilgrimages to Australia and New Zealand to produce antipodean acts such as Salmonella Dub.He's currently living in LA. What does he like about the Californian vibe?
"Oh yeah, it's perfect. I can live with the beautiful climate and the big house and big car. It doesn't get me down too much."
"But the thing is, LA's just somewhere I live, I don't get too involved with all the scenes there," he reveals. "I do soundtrack work and things like that and I'm currently getting into the hip-hop things there. It's a different territory over there."
How do you mean?
"Well, the difference is that the r'n'b scene and hip-hop over there is so far removed from the so-called dance scene."
Really? The lines of demarcation are so blurred here...
"Right, but it was weird for me because I was the only white guy in a reggae band (Dub Syndicate) for years and I never thought about it, but America still doesn't work that way. Even though I live in East LA, I know there are areas you don't go to. I live near Chinatown and ten years ago there's no way I'd have gone into that area, though...so it is changing."
Absolutely. Even so, however, there must be days now when you think how far you've come since those days in the late 1970s when your Gran died and left you the £100 to buy your first WASP analogue synth. Do you still have it?
"Oh no, man, I really wish I did," says Dave totally sincerely.
"They were great days alright. I used to collect all that gear, the 808, 909 and Juno...the Roland stuff. It's all gone now, though. It's all done on a laptop, it's all you need innit?"
Yeah, Dave, guess so. Though a whole lotta inspiration and some cool friends help as well. As "Big Casino" and so much of James Hardway's back catalogue shows, though, Dave Harrow has all this and so much more. Long may he forge ahead.
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